Sunday, November 8, 2009

I've been struggling all day, trying to come up with a way to tell this story. I want to frame it perfectly, so you will see how poignant and perfect a moment it was. I have, however, given up. All my hand wringing has brought me no closer to the right way, so I'm just going to tell it.

As I've mentioned before, we take turns creating Saturday night dinner music mixes. We take particular delight in surprising and stumping each other in a lively game of "name this band." Last night was Max's turn.

His mix began with a song I didn't know and then one I did and then, a song I haven't heard or thought of in way too many years.

My mom tells the story of how when I was a little little girl I would watch the cartoon, Casper the Friendly Ghost, on television and when the adults would be scared of Casper and run away and Casper would begin to cry, I would go over and try to put my little arms around our big clunky television and comfort him saying, "I'll be your friend, Casper."

Max has never heard this story.

The song last night was the theme song from Casper the Friendly Ghost. Max had sung it in music class earlier this year and never mentioned it. Frank, who knows the story, looked amazed. I got tears in my eyes and started to tell Max the story, then he got tears in his eyes too.

I don't know how to wrap the story up neatly for you. It was one of those rich, messy, human moments – the three of us stopped in mid-dinner, our eyes filled with tears over a cheesy cartoon theme song. We cried and laughed. We finished dinner.

3 comments:

What a sweet moment of connection for all of you -- one you'll always remember. I bet "Casper" will just pop up at special occasions (graduations, Max's wedding!, anniversaries), and the three of you will look at each other and connect and smile. :)